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Sunday, 31 August 2014

Up cycling.

Towards the end of last year I was lucky enough to receive a car load of hand me down clothes for the little lady from the sister of a girl I used to work with. When I saw car load I quite literally mean a car load. I even gave boxes of stuff to my sister in law, a cousin and two friends and the little lady still has more clothes than I do and will be well dressed up until she's about 4!

In there was a very pretty handmade off-white corduroy dress with a bow on the front. The dress hung in her wardrobe until a couple of weeks ago when I figured she would soon be able to fit into it. I knew that if the dress stayed the colour it was I just wouldn't put it on her after all, who can keep a white dress clean on a 1 year old?? Because if you can then you're a miracle worker! There was also a little stain near the hem that hadn't come out with treatment/washing. So I decided to dye it. I picked up some Dylon fabric dye in French Lavender and the result was more porcelain blue than lavender but I quite like it and it also hid the stain well!! (Of course I forgot to take a before dyeing photo).

The bow on the front was a bit off centre and at an angle which I knew was going to annoy me every time I saw it so I had planned on taking it off and centring it but when I took it off the bow just wasn't doing it for me so I left it. There was a little mark on the fabric where the bow had been which needed to be covered up. I searched through me ribbon box, knowing I had just the right kind of lace trim that would work and with help from himself I found some very jazzy buttons in my button jar.

A little bit of hand sewing and the mark was covered up.

So for the cost of some fabric dye and the time it took me to find and sew on some lace trim and buttons a new dress was born.

I have been contemplating adding a white Peter Pan collar but I haven't made up my mind yet. The little lady but she's wearing it today over a t-shirt that has a collar to help me decide. It looks well but I'm still not sure. Anyone got any thoughts on the matter?